Yes, we are a cou­ple of days late — but here we are with some Music for Blooms­day: the anniver­sary of June 16, 1904 when the events of Ulysses, the best-known work by the Irish lit­er­ary giant James Joyce, would have tak­en place in Dublin and environs.

The cel­e­bra­tion — which in mod­ern times includes a great many events in and around Dublin and else­where in the world — was orig­i­nal­ly estab­lished in 1954 on the 50th anniversary.

To cel­e­brate Blooms­day we’re pre­sent­ing a pro­gramme of Irish music, tra­di­tion­al and mod­ern; we will also be play­ing no less than three musi­cal set­tings of some of James Joyce’s first pub­lished poet­ry: Cham­ber Music of 1907. You’ll hear the piano and tenor voice inter­pre­ta­tions of Alfred and Marc Heller, the San Fran­cis­co Sym­pho­ny Cho­rus under Marc Shapiro, and a com­plete series of set­tings of all 36 poems, by some of today’s top alter­na­tive artists. You may hear some sur­pris­es today.

Main image: “JAMES JOYCE [ST. STEPHEN’S GREEN] REF-1085620″ by info­ma­tique is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Sec­ondary Image: Pub­lic Domain,